Among the wonders of the Italian Renaissance was Florence’s Hospital of the Innocents, Europe’s first orphanage. In an era when children were often trafficked or left to die or roam the streets, an orphanage devoted to their care and protection was a striking innovation. A symbol of Florence’s cultural and architectural brilliance, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, the institution known as the Innocenti became a haven for more than 400,000 children across five centuries.

With deep knowledge of the literary and artistic environment in which this new understanding of childhood flowered, Joseph Luzzi explores how the Innocenti taught children mercantile skills, rudimentary literature and, for a few, the arts. He does not shy away from addressing the flaws in the institution’s pursuit of its high-minded mission but gives readers the first comprehensive “biography” of a ground-breaking humanitarian institute.